Hoover parents, school employees favor full week out at Thanksgiving

Hoover parents and employees of Hoover City Schools appear to like their full week out of school for Thanksgiving.

School officials gave people a week to vote on three calendar options for the 2017-18 school year, and 77.5 percent chose either of the two calendars that lets students out a full week for Thanksgiving.

The Hoover Parent Teacher Council wanted to give people a chance to consider a third option that matched the three-day school week for Thanksgiving offered by other over-the-mountain school systems, HPTC President Shelley Shaw said. The group didn't favor one calendar over another but wanted to offer the option, she said.

However, only 22.5 percent of people favored the calendar with a three-day school week for Thanksgiving, Superintendent Kathy Murphy said.

There were not many differences between the calendars beyond that.

Forty-five percent of survey respondents chose Option B, which would provide three more days for winter break than Option A.

Option B would start school one day earlier (Aug. 9, 2017) and end school one day later (May 24, 2018) than Option A. Option B also would allow only one teacher workday (Feb. 19) in February, compared to two teacher workdays (Feb. 19-20) with Option A.

Murphy tonight recommended the school board approve Option B since it appears to be the favorite, but the school board is not slated to vote on the 2017-18 calendar until its next meeting on Jan. 9. People have almost a month to let school board members know how they feel about the calendar proposal.

Hoover schools spokesman Jason Gaston said the survey with three options was available to parents, school employees and the community at large from Dec. 2 to Dec. 9. More than 3,500 people responded to the survey, Murphy said.

In putting together the calendar options, Gaston said school officials tried to develop options that had what they consider to be a reasonable start date, a balance of instructional days between the two semesters and an ending date before Memorial Day , which is May 28, 2018.

Here are the highlights from the Option B 2017-18 calendar recommended by Murphy:

First day for students – Aug. 9

Labor Day holiday – Sept. 4

Teacher workday (no students) – Oct. 9

Veterans Day holiday – Nov. 10

Thanksgiving holiday – Nov. 20-24

Winter break – Dec. 21-Jan. 4

Teacher workday (no students) – Jan. 4

First day back for students – Jan. 5

Martin Luther King Jr. holiday – Jan. 15

Teacher workday (no students) – Feb. 19

Spring break – March 26-30

Teacher workday (no students) – April 23

Spain Park High graduation – May 23

Hoover High graduation – May 24

Last day for students – May 24

Teacher workday – May 25

Memorial Day holiday – May 28

To see all three calendar options that were considered, go to the Hoover City Schools website. However, the voting period has ended, Gaston said.

This article was updated at 11:23 p.m. to clarify the Hoover Parent Teacher Council's stance on the calendar issue.